One of the most significant campaigns in the 2013 election cycle is also one of the least known: The race to unseat Brooklyn District Attorney Charles J. Hynes, a veteran Democrat whose tenure is under attack over a series of wrongful convictions.

The brutal attack on a Korean American taxi driver last January has spurred Korean-American politicians to be more active in representing the interests of the community and led many to push for the election of more Korean Americans to political office.

In a forum with the community and ethnic press, Republican mayoral candidate John Catsimatidis talked affordable housing and keeping NYCHA buildings safe, and his campaign’s efforts to meet with the many ethnic groups of the city, as evidenced by his “Lats for Cats” group – as in Latinos for Catsimatidis.

In a Q&A with members of the community and ethnic media, mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner shared his views on affordable housing, fines on small businesses, and Raymond Kelly, among other topics. On the defensive in discussing how he has spent his time since he left Congress following a sexting scandal two years ago, he averred that getting back into public service was a way to “repay” his debt.

Mayoral candidate Adolfo Carrión said he is running as an independent because the Democratic and Republican parties are out of touch. Describing himself as a social progressive and fiscal conservative, he said he supports expanding charter schools, opposes stop-and-frisk and said UFT leaders are not serving its rank and file.

Mayor Bloomberg’s policy of phasing-out and closing public schools due to poor performance has drawn criticism from school staff and students, and has become a hot political issue in the race for City Hall.

Long-shot mayoral hopeful Sal Albanese talks about why his campaign doesn’t take money from developers and why he thinks Mayor Bloomberg hasn’t done a good job in one of his pet causes, education, in this article originally published in the Amsterdam News on April 30.

The absence of halal menu choices in New York’s public schools has become a political issue in New York’s mayoral campaign as Democratic candidates look for ways to appeal to an estimated 105,000 registered Muslim voters.

As Marty Markowitz’s third term as Brooklyn Borough President comes to an end this year, voters having to decide who will succeed him are left with many open questions about his legacy, and even the function of the job.

As the White House urged Congress to withhold $600 million in nutrition assistance to Puerto Rico, officials responded angrily that this is only the latest in a series of President Trump’s attempts to stop the flow of federal aid to the island, El Nuevo Día reports. Political analyst Domingo Emanuelli found the Trump government's actions “barbaric,” and urged Puerto Rican Republicans to reconsider their allegiance. San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz said: “I shouted against Trump’s abuses from the start while others were chummy with him. Trump is not the plantation owner and we are not his slaves.” Link to original story →

The Indigenous Peoples March being held in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 18, a day ahead of the Women's March, will bring together groups from Puerto Rico to South America and Central America, reports Remezcla, to focus attention on issues from voter suppression to human trafficking to police brutality to what is called an “environmental holocaust” by activists. “I think it’s a collective cry for help because we’re in a time of crisis that we have not seen in a very long time,” says Nathalie Farfan, an Ecuadorean Indigenous woman and event organizer. Link to original story →

After vowing to create a more inclusive school system in North Carolina, the Durham Board of Education introduced a new department of second language services to serve newly-arrived immigrants who don’t speak English as a first language, Qué Pasa Noticias reports. One of the main goals of the initiative will be to coordinate a translation and interpretation system to help families participate in their children’s education. “As our Latinx population keeps growing we keep opening our schools’ doors to those arriving from all over the world,” said Superintendent Pascal Mubenga. Link to original story →

With Sen. Kamala Harris expected to announce her decision on a presidential run, The American Bazaar asks members of the Indian-American community about the potential candidacy of the California native. While some celebrated the possibility of Harris, who is of Jamaican-Indian descent, running amid the current political atmosphere, others say the country is "still not ready for a female president and certainly not a non-white." Link to original story →